Downtown Parking Gets Easier, For A Change New Parking Lot Offers Machine To Break A Buck

December 17, 1990|by CHUCK AYERS, The Morning Call

Perhaps the second most-heard complaint from motorists in downtown Allentown, behind their inability to find a parking space, is to find change to feed the parking meter.

Attuned to both those problems, the Allentown Parking Authority recently opened its first downtown surface parking lot on S. 9th Street and introduced a possible solution to the oft-heard complaint about change.

The authority took the step of installing a change machine at the new parking lot. If successful, parking officials say, the change in making change could alter the way motorists park downtown.

Linda Kauffman, executive director of the Parking Authority, said the idea of installing a change maker at the lot was born of an excuse frequently heard by the Parking Authority. Downtown motorists who receive tickets for parking in expired metered spaces use it often, said Kauffman.

"The excuse I hear a lot is that `I didn't have a quarter and didn't have the time to run into a store to get change,'" Kauffman said.

That excuse won't work on the new lot, since the change machines were installed two weeks ago. And if Kauffman's idea works, the machines will also eliminate the excuse from another parking lot planned by the authority for S. 8th Street and, eventually, all along Hamilton Mall.

"I want to see how it works and if there are problems. We'll put them on 8th, then we'll see from there. Ideally, I'd like to see them all over town," said Kauffman.

Kauffman reports the change machine is being used moderately, with the biggest problem being how to keep the doors open on the steel box in which the change machine is housed. The wind keeps blowing them shut, Kauffman said.

The city has long been plagued by vandals who break into coin boxes, such as those that used to be installed on light standards at the tennis courts in Jordan Park.

Because of the vandalism, the city was forced to remove the coin boxes.

The steel box encasing the change machines is expected to thwart the vandalism threat, Kauffman said. Two sides of the box are reinforced by concrete walls, on which the box hangs. And there will be a security system installed to alert police when the metal vaults are being tampered with, according to Kauffman.

When the lot closes at 9:30 p.m., the box will be locked shut and not reopened until morning.

"Obviously, vandalism is a concern, but you've got to try it. It'll be enclosed in a steel box and we're going to install a security system on it. Hopefully we'll deter people. It'll be a shame if one or two people ruin it for everybody," she said.

While talks are in the preliminary stages with the city on expanding use of the change machines throughout the mall, Kauffman said she has yet to hear any opposition to the idea.

"I think everybody agrees if it works and it's nice, that we would put them all around the mall. Nobody has told me that's a dumb idea," she said.

And while the concept might be doomed to fail in more crime-ridden cities, Kauffman said she expects it to work in Allentown.

"We're trying it because we really think it's going to work," she said. "I really don't know of any cities that have tried this, but it's something that can work it Allentown. I'm truly optimistic."